‘It’s Russian roulette’: alarm as Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed regions
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- The European Commission plans to revise the EU's Water Framework Directive to remove permitting bottlenecks for critical minerals mining, with Watershed Investigations analysis showing more than half of 33 designated strategic mines sit in areas that have been drying over the past two decades per NASA satellite data.
- The 33 strategic mines under the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act include six in highly water-stressed areas of Spain alone, with others in Portugal and Greece — three countries ranking among the top 10 EU nations with the worst water scarcity according to the European Environment Agency.
- Nearly half of the strategic mines experienced drought conditions in the past three months per EU data, and a quarter sit in regions deemed water-stressed; 96% of Portugal faced extreme or severe drought in 2022, and Catalonia declared a state of emergency over its worst-ever drought in 2024.
- Ecologistas en Acción is legally challenging the Commission's decision to grant strategic project status to all six Spanish mines, arguing it failed to properly assess risks to water resources, biodiversity, and protected areas.
- Euromines, Europe's mining trade body, is pushing for longer water-quality compliance deadlines, amendments to the directive's "no deterioration" rule, and greater legal certainty for industrial projects, while insisting the changes are "not a licence to pollute."
- UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health director Prof Kaveh Madani called fast-tracking mines in water-stressed regions "a form of Russian roulette," warning that one serious failure "in the wrong location can neutralise many of the promised gains."
Why it matters: The 33 fast-tracked mines are meant to reduce EU dependence on imported minerals needed for AI, EVs, renewables, and defense — yet more than half sit in regions where Spain, Portugal, and Greece have already declared drought emergencies or imposed water-use restrictions. Rewriting the Water Framework Directive while accelerating mining in those same zones asks the EU's own water law to accommodate the pressures it was built to prevent.
